Paul Suellentrop’s Missouri Valley Conference report (Feb. 2)

Background checks are important part of basketball recruiting

Bradley coach Brian Wardle wants his assistants to know who a player will call when things get rough. With that piece of information, he can begin to determine an athlete’s fit and willingness to handle coaching.

“Family situation, who’s in the young man’s ear, who are his mentors, who’s he going to for advice can really dictate whether I recruit a young man or not,” Wardle said. “Have they been told no before? Who’s their one phone call? What is that person going to say? Are they going to give them good advice?”

The MVC would look different with some of these players on rosters:

Joey King (Drake) averages 11.7 points at Minnesota, where Reggie Lynch (Illinois State) is sitting out. Marcus Marshall (Missouri State), the 2013 MVC Freshman of the Year, and 2015 All-Freshman pick Jordan Caroline (Southern Illinois) are redshirting at Nevada. Josh Cunningham (Bradley) is at Dayton and Nick Zeisloft (Illinois State) averages 6.2 points at Indiana.

And on, and on.

Transfers affect MVC rosters as they do throughout college basketball. The trend forces coaches to dig deep into a recruit’s personality and background to determine fit. Coaches want to talk to the recruit’s coach, his teachers, his guidance counselors. Assistant coaches check social media for clues.

“The first thing our guys do is with Facebook and Twitter,” Drake coach Ray Giacoletti said.

Some athletes are recruited for a year or more, allowing coaches to build a relationship. Other recruiting stories can unfold over a few weeks, which can be dangerous. An unhappy player can throw a program off course for years. At Missouri State, Marshall looked like a piece of the foundation until he transferred during the 2014-15 season. Most coaches have a similar story.

“You’re going to get guys that have no drama in their lives and everything is easy,” Indiana State coach Greg Lansing said. “You’re going to get some guys that are going to have some bumps in the road. With any recruiting of the young man, you’ve got to know who’s helping them make the decision.”

Wardle, who has 10 freshmen on his roster, wants his players to dream big and work for big goals. He is cautious, however, when family members introduce the NBA as an immediate topic.

“Any time a parent talks about their kid being in the NBA is a red flag to me,” he said. “You’d be shocked, at the type of player their kid is and then talking about ‘I think if he gets this type of coaching or if you play this style of ball he’ll be in the NBA one day.’”

Wichita State hasn’t experienced a talent drain. Players such as Jake White, Derail Green and Corey Henderson Jr. transferred to find more playing time.

“If the dad’s overbearing, or thinks he’s going to be the coach, then we probably steer in a different direction,” coach Gregg Marshall said. “We get guys that want to be here. I really don’t have much problem with that. We do our vetting prior to getting them here. We don’t generally lose guys that are part of our rotation and helping us win.”

Fast breaks

▪  Drake freshman center Dominik Olejniczak made 17 of 19 shots and averaged 7.8 points in his five games before Tuesday.

▪  Evansville guard D.J. Balentine needs 26 points to tie Colt Ryan atop the school’s career scoring list. Balentine has 2,253 points, eighth in MVC history.

▪  Loyola assistant coach Bryan Mullins earned MVC Defensive Player of the Year honors twice while playing at Southern Illinois. Those skills are put to use regularly by coach Porter Moser.

“I’ve got him practicing,” Moser said. “There’s no defender that we play against that can get up into Milt (Doyle), get up into Earl (Peterson) and our guys like Bryan.”

Trending up

Illinois State forward MiKyle McIntosh is emerging as a consistent scoring threat in MVC play. He’s scored in double figures in five of the past seven games, averaging 16.4 points on 54-percent shooting during that stretch. The Shockers play the Redbirds for the first time on Saturday at Redbird Arena.

Trending down

While Northern Iowa has won two in a row, the Panthers are 4-6 in the MVC. They need to go 5-3 to avoid their first losing MVC season since the 2003 team went 7-11. Three of those wins are against Bradley (twice) and Drake, which means the Panthers face teams above them throughout February.

Get to know an MVC neighbor

Q: What was former Shockers coach Ralph Miller’s record in games at Bradley?

A: Miller went 0-13 against the Braves in Peoria from 1951-64, losing three times to teams ranked in the top 10.

One to watch

Evansville (18-5, 7-3) at Northern Iowa (12-11, 4-6), 6 p.m. Wednesday (FSKC) — Two wins by the Panthers, the revival of Paul Jesperson (28 points vs. Bradley) and the emergence of Bennett Koch (22 points vs. Southern Illinois) makes UNI a scary place to visit.

This story was originally published February 2, 2016 at 7:25 PM with the headline "Paul Suellentrop’s Missouri Valley Conference report (Feb. 2)."